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Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Mar. 11th through Mar. 17th

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

Good morning, Meese. Currently 27 here, with an expected high of 32, and right now some snow is lazily falling. I doubt much will accumulate, which is good, because I’m reaching that point of the winter where I’m ready for it to be done. I don’t need full-blown spring just yet, but some days with temps in the 40s and 50s would be most welcome.

I fired up the computer this morning to the news that Tillerson is out and Pompeo is his likely replacement. I guess Tillerson’s comments critical of Russia made our overlords unhappy, so T***p ousted him; Pompeo is a toady and a lackey, but that appears to be the key qualification for cabinet positions these days. Our descent to banana republic status continues apace…

I called it last night when I saw the State Department statement about the British attacks. Tillerson is well off financially, never wanted this job once he realized how hard it was, and was just counting time until he could resign and not get taxed on the holdings he sold in 2017.

I suspect that the end times of the Trump Administration is going to be ugly and that no one really wants to spend their retirement behind bars. This may be the last exit ramp now that the House Republicans have rubber-stamped Russian interference – Trump will become emboldened and will not care who he takes down with him.

32 with a windchill of 29 – frost all over everything but the nice clear sunshine is rapidly burning it off. Heading for 50 or so – if it stays calm I’ll take a walk today and see what else has bloomed. If not, I’ll either do the treadmill or split some more firewood on the carport. That wood is really too green but as long as I mix it with what little seasoned wood I have left it works. Supposedly the guy down the street will be bringing me the rick I’ve already paid for (like 2 weeks ago) tomorrow. I’m not going to hold my breath. Yesterday stayed cloudy enough that I only got 12 KWHs once it cleared off – m-t-d is 158.6 – hoping to get another 16+ day today.

On the political front seriously holding the Good Thought for PA – another flip would be so nice. On the fundraising front I’m seriously holding the Good Thought we get the last just under $300 for Franki and Mikayla. And of course the others on the needs list and off. Seriously sending out Healing Energy in all directions because it’s certainly needed.

Good morning, 57 and cloudy in Bellingham. My house is calm and peaceful but reading twitter makes me feel the world is spinning in chaos. I’m going to try to keep the calm and peaceful feelings as my reality for as long as I can!

I am sewing my pillow project now, and it’s nice to be at the stage where a few minutes at the machine produces some finished pieces. I have all the bias trim made, and today I’ll serge all the fronts and backs and then I can easily complete a pillow.

As for the Bernie supporting faction of the Women’s March “leadership” am fit to be tied with the stupid of anyone who supports Louis the Faker Farrakhan
These young women do not know history though they spout a lot of radical rhetoric.
Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam didn’t just go after and kill Malcolm X – they perpetrated mass slaughter in DC – the 1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre in Washington DC
They killed babies.

Two adults and a child were shot to death, four other children were drowned whose ages ranged from nine days to ten years old. Two others were severely injured

Kareem Abdul Jabbar had bought the home for the Hanafi group who had spoken out against the NOI.

Farrakhan – is poison – and defending him shouldn’t just be an issue of his antisemitism – which is vile – he’s a full blown hater.

I am glad to get your take on Farrakhan and your opinion of the people who appear to be embracing him. I was reading the history and thinking “okay, there is really not anything redeeming about this guy and if they like him because he is ‘radical’ that seems to miss the point.” I have been hesitant to retweet any of the Womens March tweets until this gets sorted out. Some people need to resign and the people left need to publicly denounce them.

People criticizing Mallory, Sarsour, Perez need to understand that they have been pushing a Bernie anti-Hillary agenda, they are opportunists and just because they get their pictures taken with clenched fists (this glam shit made me spit) and spout radical rhetoric they ain’t leaders of the community. The people siding with and defending them who feel like woc are being singled out are wrong-headed too.
That’s why solely claiming they are agreeing with antisemitism is not sufficient.
Farra-Con is a terminal hater. I can openly go after Israeli policy and at the same time denounce antisemitism. Homophobia and misogyny are to be condemned. As a black woman – my harshest indictment is against those who manipulate “blackness” and wind up harming us. The Russians glommed onto that and set up blackface troll-bots to rail against Hillary. Too many of the young and stupid fell for the bullshit
Nina Turner is all up in this mess.
Disgusted.

I posted my thoughts in one of those thread thingees – in answer to the Mallory woman

1) Your "truth" needs to be watered with history. Suggest you study up and question Farrakhan about the slaughter of Hanafi Muslim babies in DC in 1973.'Two adults and a child were shot to death, four other children were drowned whose ages ranged from nine days to ten years old' https://t.co/SzoXbON9TT

{{{Denise}}} – I am not surprised at the “women’s march” so-called leaders on this. I knew they were at least willfully ignorant if not just plain trolls when they took over that very organic march – they used Hillary’s “women’s rights are human rights…” quote as their logo and banner but refused to put Hillary on their list of feminists. And swore up and down that Hillary wasn’t a feminist (like bernie was) when they were called on it. That kind of person falls for the rhetoric and not only never checks facts, they deny facts. I’m angry of course. But not surprised.

Envisioned as part-memorial and part-protest/social action, Wednesday’s walkout and rally will bring together students from Madison’s four main high schools — no one knows how many but the expectation is in the several hundreds.

Some UW-Madison students are expected to join them, as well as perhaps 200 students from O’Keeffe Middle School in Madison, a few busloads of students from Milwaukee-area high schools who have RSVP’d, and high school students from Sun Prairie, Middleton and Verona.

My daughter will be part of the walkout and will head down to the rally with friends. She is both excited and worried – she has never been part of a mass protest on her own volition (we went to the Capitol in 2011 to protest Act 10 and Walker but she was only 10 years old). I hope everyone behaves and if there are counter-protesters, that they respect the students.

I stayed up until 9:30 to watch PA-18 returns and realized it was going to be a close one. My newspaper this morning says it is about a 700 vote margin before absentee ballots – too close to call. I will head over to Twitter shortly and see how the Republicans are spinning how a Trump+20 lead evaporated in 18 months. Some of the commentary yesterday suggested that this district was not even in the top 100 “possible flips” so the moral victory has already been won. This PA-18 won’t exist in November and the district that Conor Lamb will be eligible to run in will be more favorable to him. Lots of money has gone into what will be a 9 month Congressional seat.

I am going to avert my eyes from the sh*tshow that Trump is running from the White House. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is “my anger and distress simply feeds the deplorables” and 10 is “my protesting and letter writing and calls can effect change”, this is a -5. Trump just needs every camera and every microphone pointed at him constantly and I am going to mute it all.

I hope the ballot count falls Lamb’s way. Already dealing with idjits whining about “but but but he’s not a progressive”
They have no clue about what type of Democrat can win in Pennsyltucky
They want some Bernie-backed gasbag to blow into town and lose resoundingly

The biggest problem with the TheirRevolution people is it is filled with puristas. It is one thing to have an ideal candidate in mind but with the two party system you have to be willing to support the less-than-ideal for you who might be a good fit for the district. If we nationalize every legislative race, we will lose. The woman in upstate Wisconsin who stunned the TeaWalker in Senate District 10 did not run on “we hate Trump”. She ran on “I will represent the interests of the people of Senate District 10 in Madison”. That is why I think that the folks pushing the mustache guy in CD-01, Paul Ryan’s district, may be in for a surprise. Cathy Myers fits the district, has done the hard work of getting elected to public office, and is not seeking endorsements from national political “celebrities”. Janesville and Racine and Kenosha and Beloit aren’t Madison and the berners here (who stayed home pouting in 2016) won’t be voting there – the people who are like Cathy will be.

“our revolution” always attacks our team. They want things to get “bad enough” that The People will rise up and overthrow the existing order and hand everything to them on a platter. Our team makes thing better. The Extreme Left is just as evil, just as willing to kill people, lots of people, as the Extreme Right on the path to money and power.

My neighbor contacted her insurance & they want an adjuster to look at my place, so I’m waiting for that call (note to self — remember to have them look at the floor as well as the ceiling, there was standing water). They’ll cover those repairs, but the plumbing part will be on her. Which sucks, she really didn’t need this right now.

Stephen Hawking died. I still don’t understand A Brief History of Time, read it several times. There’s a place where he asks you to visualize in 4 dimensions & my brain just stops there. He was funny. And today is Pi day. Definitely stopping at the pie place in my neighborhood on the way home.

Good morning, Moosekind. Clear and cold here in NoVa, with a current temp. of 28 F. Later it will go up to 42 F.

Had the Night from Hell again—was glued to the laptop screen until 10 watching the needle for the election results, and I suppose all the blue light killed my sleep appetite. Turned lights out at 11, at 2 was still awake, so went downstairs and read until 4:30. I’ll be useless today. Dentist at 10, bank afterwards, and then home until 2:30. My daughter gave me a gift certificate for a massage for a 50th anniversary present, so I’m using that before we leave this neighborhood.

Very pleased to hear about Lamb’s presumed victory, saddened to hear that Stephen Hawking, that great mind, has passed. I’m worried about bfitz—I hear she’s having trouble with her computer. Does anyone know how she’s faring? I don’t have her telephone number.

Yikes, I have to leave in an hour, so must get moving. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond!

I have absolutely no idea what happened to my computer last night. Starting between 5:45 and 6:15 CDT while I still had email and I could get to sites like YouTube (& the .net Moose would load although not all the pictures were there) I could not connect to any of the .com WordPress sites – Squirrel, Aji’s new site etc – DK came up with the banner but no content, and twitter came up in read-only coding format so I couldn’t DM either. Nothing basket or WYgal suggested worked. I finally gave up and shut down for the night at 8:45. That had me seriously freaked out and seriously messed with my sleep. But I’ve just finished checking on everything except DK and I seem to be back. (& in a sense it would almost be a relief if I couldn’t get to DK. I’m still managing to connect with folks via email or proxies, but it’s getting harder and harder to deal with emotionally.) Anyway, I’m back.

Meanwhile – 30 windchill 25 heading for 60 and sunny. Yesterday generated 18.5 KWHs! high for the day, month, and year to date. m-t-d is 177 so definitely on track to get over 300 and still possible to get over 400.

W00T!!! for Conor Lamb – seriously holding the Good Thought for the recount I assume is going to happen. And a W00T!!! for Franki’s gofundme – the Squirrels took it over the $3K goal yesterday afternoon. (My connection went down right after I posted a thank you over there – at least it waited for that.) The firehose of crap coming out of the WH is why I seldom pay any attention to it. It’s always “full of sound and fury” and it usually is “signifying nothing” except somebody’s sick need for attention all the time. We’ve got work to do – blue wave work, precinct-level organizing work, GOTV work – reacting to either the Extreme Left or Extreme Right wastes our time. If there’s something we can do about them, fine. Do it. Then get back to work. But arguing with them, responding to them? Waste of time. Which is exactly what they want. Blue waves don’t happen by themselves or while we’re arguing with LWNJs or RWNJs.

Gonna do some more checking around the internet. I wish I knew what happened so I’ll know what to do about it next time. I mostly wish I knew if it’s a sign of something going out/bad in my laptop so I’ll know when to take it in. It’s still under warranty – I got it in May 2016. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

Google changed the way some of their web sites work and ISPs, browser developers and anti-virus software firms have been trying to catch up ever since. I spent all day yesterday chasing unfixable problems at client organizations. I am hoping the worst of it is over.

Thanks. That could have been it. Reports from my friend – she doesn’t do twitter or blog sites – indicate it was systemic. Everything she tried to do worked, but it was slow loading and sometimes stopped to buffer when it “shouldn’t” have needed to. You and me both about “worst is over” – although you probably hope it 100x more than I do considering it’s your livelihood to deal with it. {{{HUGS}}}

The people calling him “Republican Lite” need to have their freaking heads examined. That looks like “Democrat Just Right” to me.

Plus even if he was not right on every one of those positions, this:

While I'm far left of Conor Lamb, there is a lesson for the numbskull Nina Turner – Susan Sarandon wing of the Dem Party. When up against a racist, serial lying existential threat to America like Trump, you do not f*ck around with puritanical politics. #PA18#LastWord@Lawrence

It is 28 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 41. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

All I can say about the student walkout yesterday is “Get on my lawn, youngins’!” My Twitter timeline was full of inspiring photos and lots and lots of future – and current! – voters who are not afraid to take on the sacred cows. My daughter went down to the Capitol where she was with 3,000 of her peers, fired up and ready to go! One of the chants from the UW-Madison students who joined the high school and middle school students was “Hey hey NRA, how many kids did you kill today?” That will burn. The NRA, like the Republican Party, will be the refuge of bitter old people, longing for the days when kids and wimmins and the blah people knew their place. You know where their place is? In the voting booth!

It’s spring break here, so no walk outs. But the march on the 24th will be huge. The insurance adjuster is coming this evening to look at the bathroom. The Trump admin is just a tsunami of awful. Here listen to California, and remember that there is no end to love.

51 heading for 70 and sunny at the moment although clouds are projected to roll in shortly. Slightly topped Tuesday’s 18.55 KWHs with 18.59 KWHs yesterday – still a serious “W00t!!!” in my mind – and the m-t-d is 195.9 meaning as long as I get any sunshine today I should crest 200. If I get good sunshine this morning I might crest 200 by lunch time. :)

Sort of ironic that I’m more in touch with my online “family” than my blood kin – I haven’t confirmed yet how many of my grandsons participated in yesterday’s walk out. I’m pretty sure the high schooler did (I thought I saw him in one of the twitter clips), not sure about the college or 2 jr high, and seriously doubt the 3rd grader or preschooler did. Still – I very proud of all the kids who walked. And of the ones who figured out ways to mark the day even if they weren’t allowed/threats of punishment significant enough to deter the walk. I’m definitely seeing signs of hope here. Kids are always the future and young folks have always been the drivers behind significant change – always at the point where “this ain’t right/fair” boils up into “if nobody else is going to do anything, me and my friends will”. We’ve reached that point. This only works if the “grownups” – who’ve always known “this ain’t right/fair” but felt helpless/hopeless about changing it – see the kids actually making progress and back them up. That seems to be happening now – like the 60s with better communication, LOL – and it gives me hope that we’ll not only get back on track but make some progressing towards making things better, if not totally right. The kids are pretty focused on voting as well as marching and seem to be pretty intersectional about it which certainly is better than the 1960s lot. Hope. It’s a good thing.

Need to respond to some emails, visit the Villages, RT some stuff, then go do outside stuff while the weather is so nice. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

Good morning, 35 and sunny in Bellingham. I see a classic PNW view outside my window today. I love seeing the bare branches of my old maple trees against the pale blue water and a pinky blue sky. I’ll do some more garden clean up later today when it’s a bit warmer.

Friday Meese
31 degrees here in Saugerties NY going up to 34
I leave for Miami FL tomorrow morning and won’t be back till Wednesday evening – will be doing a major spiritual ceremony for my godson down there.

The U.S.has the world's most powerful military. We should use it to fix, and repair Puerto Rico. Fucking @realDonaldTrump -Commander in Chief sits n the WH allowing U.S. citizens in PR to die and suffer as we stand by and watch. Republicans are complicit in this #VoteThemOuthttps://t.co/6PNsRyrfBs

Does your spiritual ceremony have to do with Ostara? I have been thinking lately that a new beginnings ritual is in order for me this year and Ostara would be a good time for one.

Have a great trip! I hope you have good weather and that spring breakers aren’t too annoying. The last time I went to Florida, I overlapped with the beginning of spring break and the hotel I was in turned into a party hotel complete with cops and evictions – and very little sleep.

No – it doesn’t – only picked this date because I have spring break. The ceremony is one that the godparent priest performs for a godchild priest so that they can then initiate others – it is kind of like a graduation – and involves holding a massive feast
It is called “giving the knife” – the godchild symbolically cuts the umbilical cord from the godparent and can then establish their own “ile” or house

No hotel for me – am staying in the home of the “Oriate” or “Master of Ceremonies”. He has a pool and the weather looks to be lovely :)
Will only see spring breakers in the airport

It is 21 degrees in Madison with an expected daytime high of 39. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

A quick scan of the news shows that the poorly produced soap opera, As The Oval Churns, has rumors of firings as today’s story line. I am hoping that floating John Bolton’s name for NSC is just to poke libruls in the eye because he would be a disaster there – and that position is not subject to Senate confirmation. That Scott Pruitt wants the Attorney General post – and apparently won’t get it – is somewhat a relief. Sessions is an out and proud white supremacist and that makes him easier to deal with – Pruitt is a slitherly slimey sociopathic destroyer and, in my opinion, would be worse. We have dealt with racists in the past but Pruitt would use the power of prosecution to nullify every regulation passed since the New Deal. Gawd, they are truly deplorable.

Warm enough today for sandals. I am ignoring the terrifying “Russians in the power grid” news & the awfulness of Trump admin people. (really — rich people don’t need to steal??) Anyway, got to ride my bike some this weekend, and work on cleaning up my apartment so next week the repair people can mess it up. We think that at least some of the repairs will have to be done up from my place rather than down from Lisa’s. And having some of the ceiling replaced. Anyway, I’m going to try to get fit before the May trip. Standing at the concert for several hours would really hurt my feet right now. Still listening to California

57 heading for mid 70s today but overcast. Not gonna get the 17.9 KWHs I got yesterday much less the over 18s I got the previous two days if the sun doesn’t come out soon. Still, the m-t-d is 213.7 so it’s still quite possible to get over 400 for the month. Depending entirely on how much sun we get the rest of the month of course. Gonna be close to this kind of warm the next couple of days then shift back down to highs in the 50s, lows in the upper 30s next week. Good thing I got more firewood yesterday. (No, not from the guy I’d already paid. My DIL knew I was having a problem and had “her guy” call me. He was able to get a rick to me within 24 hours of the phone call.)

The old Carol Burnett Show had a “clip” called “As the Stomach Turns” – that’s pretty much the soap opera we’ve been living in since even before Nov. 2016. We knew this would happen if Hillary didn’t win – we really never expected Hillary would win but they’d put him in the WH anyway. Until after it happened. But here we are. Working as hard as we can to take back Congress so we can do damage control and clean up. sigh. But the kids have kicked the drive into high gear. I have more hope than I did 2 months ago. Bless the Parkland kids for “seizing the moment” – and the rest for tagging on. (Including my high school grandson who definitely was in the “walk out” Wednesday.)

Need to check the Villages and tour the twitterverse (or at least as much of it as I do tour) then get offline for a bit. Shift in barometric pressure is messing with my joints and my eyes. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}

Good morning, Meese. It was 19 when I got up this morning with an expected high of 32. It’s one of the bright, sunny crisp days that are perfect in January, but not quite as welcome in mid-March. But the forecast is for high 40s/low 50s this weekend, so I’ll get the respite I’ve been waiting for. I should try to be productive this weekend, but there’s a book I really, really want to finish so it’s anyone’s guess how much I’ll actually get done (pro-tip: bet on the book).

I’ve been busy enough at work and in the evenings that I’m a bit behind on the news. I checked Twitter just in time to see this sad news:

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